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Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Calloused Americans

Look! A working class white guy!

After a few hours of writing on my laptop, I need to get up, change my clothes, and do another kind of work that involves more than my brain and my fingers on a keyboard. I have to use tools invented and manufactured in previous centuries — tools like saws, hammers, drills, chainsaws, tape measures, rulers, squares, scrapers, and the like. I have to think and work in three dimensions. I have to feel my tools and materials, and smell things like earth, sawn wood, or paint. I have to move my body, lift things, climb ladders, set up saw horses — either fix something or build it.

There are callouses on my hands and I own a pickup truck. That makes me different from most Americans on the east or west coast. That I’m also a heterosexual, white guy (HWG) makes it very likely that I voted for Trump. When the uncalloused try to analyze what happened last November 8th, they refer to us as “non-college-educated white men.” It’s ill-concealed condescension, but if called out on it, the uncalloused hastily add a Seinfeldesque: “…not that there’s anything wrong with that” as a further effort to camouflage contempt.

They were the ones laughing last September 9th in New York City when a smug Hillary Clinton put half of Trump supporters into a “basket of deplorables.” We’re not nearly as sophisticated as she and her audience. We’re calloused, deplorable, HWGs. We’re “irredeemable” because we can never be as smart as they are — even though we’re the ones they call when something doesn’t work and they cannot figure out why, or something breaks and they don’t know how to fix it. They think our intelligence is limited, but we know it’s the other way around. We know more about their world than they know about ours, but they never suspect that.

Non-college-educated white men didn't borrow against their future to spend years being inculcated with progressive pap. They don’t have to spend still more years learning that what they purchased with those tens of thousands of dollars was worthless, or that it could all have been picked it all up just be reading a few books here and there. We respect the college-educated who studied the hard sciences: physics, engineering, biology, chemistry, nursing, IT, and so forth. That kind of college is worth something. It’s grounded in the real world, unlike: sociology, education, art history, journalism, or any of the “studies” — like “ethnic studies”; “queer studies”; “women’s studies”; “gender studies”; and so forth.

In the interest of full disclosure, I had to get some degrees because they were necessary for a teaching certificate, thought they shouldn’t have been. They didn’t teach me to teach. To do that, one must know the subject matter, and then be able to impart it to others. There’s no need for college “education departments.” I endured dozens of worthless courses before I could get into a classroom, but I wasn’t brainwashed by them: I worked full-time in the real world throughout the process and stayed grounded. I knew academic baloney when I heard it, and that was more than forty years ago. It’s exponentially worse now. There was a gulf between academia and reality back then, but it’s an ocean today. The 21st century college campus is La-La Land, and you won’t find anyTrump voters there. You might be escorted off campus if you even utter his name without first issuing a trigger warning. Trump voters exist only in the real world.

We are now teetering on the edge of a truly terrifying incident, one trigger-pull away from a slaughter. Campus and urban progressives have a choice to make. Is this a nation of laws? If it is, then it’s time to grow a backbone, protect free speech, punish rioters, and expel those who disrupt the educational environment regardless of ideology.

Okay, enough of writing. Time to go outside and move my body — do something in three dimensions, stay grounded.

33 comments:

Brian
said...

What presumptuous hogwash. You want to compare calloused hands with me and my mostly liberal friends? The carpenters, plumbers, mechanics who constantly use their hands? You bring up the "uncalloused sophisticates on NBC, MSNBC, CNN, ABC". I suppose the hands of those on Fox News are all calloused? The creepy sexual predator Bill O'Reilly has calloused hands? Rush? Trump? I bet he has the softest little pampered, baby hands of anybody his age.

You also say "The 21st century college campus is La-La Land, and you won’t find anyTrump voters there."

Oh yes there are. But I guess Faux news and your alt-right media sites don't inform you about the many times they are caught harassing their classmates with the 'N' word and with xenophobic comments. My daughter attends UNE and has had some first hand experience with what goes on.

Funny how when liberal protesters get the slightest bit rowdy they are "thugs" and when an organized mob of alt-righters do the same they are somehow admirable.

The notion that the far right is fighting for the average, working hard, middle class American is a joke. I must admit that those at the top, like Trump and his billionaire boys club, have done quite a job in lying to the public in order to create this impression. I can only imagine how hard they laugh at their elitist country clubs about the fools they have tricked into voting against their own interests.

But people are waking up. The mid-terms and the next election is going to be really something!

Tom certainly comes off as a "know-it-all". He knew everything he needed to know to teach without college! He knows that liberals hands are callous free! He knows that Trump supporters do not exist on campuses! But of all the things he erroneously "knows" the most ridiculous of all is his notion that he knows more about a liberal's world than they know about his. He has proven over and over that he knows nothing about liberals, other than the caricature that is painted for him on his alt-right media outlets. Every time he tries to describe liberals it is way off base with all the actual liberals that I know. We are so different from any "liberal" he has tried to pigeon hole. But then again, I guess we know nothing of his world either. We do not live in a world of "alternate facts" in which science is meaningless, and corporations and "Capitalism" are valued more than people. That world is hard to comprehend.

You forgot to mention "conflict resolution studies." I read a few years back of a local student who had gone off to "The New School" at great expense, with great borrowing by her family, so she could study this 'discipline.' And she didn't know what she was going to do, and how she was going to pay off the debt.

Can I get a DUH?

Your usual detractors just don't get it. I might suggest that they read campus newspapers at places like Bowdoin and others to get a sense of the reality these days.

And they I'd like them to read the book "The Penis Prologues" and submit a brief opinion of it here on your web site.

This column echoes a main strategy of the uber-wealthy elitists: keep 'em uneducated and ignorant, because why else would they vote for you. Downplay the importance of education, scoff at smart people, and blame others for your problems.

At one point I to decided I needed a diploma for the credentials. It rapidly became apparent that attendance at the State "specialty" collegein Theater Arts, promising a foothold into entry level "professional" preforming artswas going to take too much time from my work "filling in" for the professional union folks at The Metropolitan Opera House.It got annoying answering questions for the graduate students, and correcting the "professors". Working with "famous" folk in the trenches paid off FAR more than listening to gate keepers that met them once at a cocktail party, or once went to a "guest" lecture of theirs. After years of steel toed boots, industrial first aid kits, respirators, etc. I've finally retired to leather tied moccasins. To this day, the first things I check when sizing up someone's character are shoes, fingernails, and (gender specific) handshake. And for heaven's sake, make note of what they drink on, and off, the job!There ARE exceptions of course. There are ALWAYS exceptions. And ALWAYS various placement in the spectrum I oughtta know.Bill Gates is a college drop out. The smartest person I know (of) writes a teen advice column. I suspect most of the "experts" conducting, and citing, daily polls in (ie) this LAST pre/post Executive office contest own tasseled oxblood loafers and have perfectly manicured... credentials.

I thinks so to that edumacation in vary overrated and unnessacary. I beliefs in things more realer then crap like sience and math and history. it is simple to know what too belief in. just belief the opamosite of what book reeding libtards belief. belief what Breitbart tells me to belief, and what Trump tells me. after all you gotsa be smart to win the biggest electorial victory since Raygun, and to get the Mexicalians to pay for the wall like he did. Why anyone goes to skool past grade 2 when they learn ya to cut and paste is beyond me

"There are callouses on my hands and I own a pickup truck. That makes me different from most Americans on the east or west coast."

What??

Do you go around with your eyes closed (to go along with your mind)? It seems that more than half of the vehicles on the road are pick-ups! If you don't notice that then of course you don't notice the callouses on people's hands, especially with your pretentious better-than-thou notion that your callouses make you special. Get over yourself.

Tom, that was one of your best columns. It raised quite a stir from the Leftist blowhards.

I'm currently in Ft. Lauderdale and took the water taxi which was a narrated tour of the local Intracoastal waterway. They pointed out Donald Pingree-Sussman's house along the way. It's quite a compound which he also built with his own two hands.

I'm not against his or any successful businessman's (ethical) accumulation of wealth, but the Left's phony narrative that they are in touch with and are fighting for the "unwashed masses" is very stale.

The libs don't get Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism so there's no sense in trying to convince them of the value of all work. It is fun, however, to hear their heads pop like the popping of bubble wrap at every mention of President Trump though. : )

And how does the alt-right get calluses? A lot of hand friction while listening to O'Reilly or Hannity? Building big walls around their property? Opening up many prescription "pain killer" drugs? Clapping at every news report of a hate crime? Spanking their own bottoms while attempting self-conversion therapy?

And Charles, very, very few people are against money an "ethical" businessman makes. And everybody I know simply laughs whenever Trump is brought up. A true national joke, even funnier in real life then SNL can ever hope to parody. The pampered, spoiled, petulant, little brat of a fake president is nothing to take seriously.

This is a familiar potpourri of rehashed themes artfully balancing victimhood and condescending superiority. Your worldview always comes across as so absurdly black and white. I just don't witness your remedial and simplistic view of the immense depth and variety of God's human creation in my daily life. Lumping the entire American population into one of two caricatures that really only exist in political cartoons is the stuff of an Onion article, not the distilled conclusions of a serious and objective observer of the political landscape. Many of the calloused, working-class heroes you allude to have been staunch Democratic unionists for generations, and many of the uncalloused, coastal, effete snobs who are endlessly rescued by your blue-collar superheroes, only a short time ago, were lauded by the conservative media as job creators. But now, it seems like your good guys have become the bad guys and your bad guys have become the good guys simple because Trump decreed it so.

Yea, Tom, great column. Keep hammerin'. Isn't it great how libtards react to our lies, slander, and ignorance! You got a real stir out of them this week with your extra dose of narrow-mindedness!! Isn't it great to get them so riled up that they laugh at us and point out our stupidity!! You got them good!!!

AS a Trump supporter, meaning I voted for him, I see that he has turned into W Bush, one liar-in-chief replaces another liar-in-chief, 100 days of Trump has shown many the he is little different than those that preceded him.

I have great respect for someone of Mr Ed's caliber, who will suck it up, be honest with themselves and the world, and admit to a mistake. Everybody makes them. I too wanted desperately to believe that their was a candidate out there that would be real, be honest, and really working for the common people. I clung to Bernie instead, but I think we both had in common that we really wanted to shake things up. To stop the political bullshit. I don't know if Bernie would have been able to crack through it, but something needed, and still needs, to change.

A couple of comments on Mr Ed's post: Yes, Trump certainly played the carnival huckster to perfection, fooling millions with his snake-oil and lies. Liar-in Chief is putting it very mildly, the man has gone to another level when it comes to disregarding the truth, even by politician standards. It is almost surreal how many blatant lies he throws out. It's good that people are finding this out, even if it is a little too late to prevent some damage to our country. But soon it will just seem like it was a demented dream we have woken up from.

Leave it to the usual suspects, with their lengthy training and certification in investigation, to figure out that this post was really about Bill O'Reilly.

Now, if they could just figure out that there is a HUGE difference between common sense and discernment, and a degree in "gender studies" or some other faddish pursuit under the guidance of tenured marxists and oppression researchers.

Now about 'lying.' Liberals embrace postmodernism, which holds that there is no such thing as objective truth, which is why they can keep a straight face when they exalt such demi-gods as Hillary, Barack, & Bernie. "Truth" is not part of the equation.

Conservatives, on the other hand, understand that those elected to high office are perhaps even more fallen that the rest of the unwashed, and do their best with their common sense, their experience, and their discernment to make choices from a hugely imperfect offering.

As for callouses, the most likely place to find them on liberals is on their vocal chords, particularly those used for shouting down others with screams of black lives matter and similar bumper sticker nuggets in order to demonstrate their unswerving commitment to the principles of "free speech."

I could suggest that many also have them on their knees for kneeling in humility before their idols, but that would be a cheap shot, and unworthy of me. So I won't make the suggestion.

By the way, I hope the fires in your hair have burned out with minimal collateral damage.

So to go up against the mountain of blatant Trump lies you bring up two vague opinions on policy that really don't have anything to do with lies. Can you give me the quote that Bernie said which shows he was saying something he knows was not true regarding these issues?

Can we provide free college? Of course, many countries do (Finland, Germany, and many more). Are you also against free public school up until grade 12? Why the arbitrary cut-off there? Why not until the 16th "grade"? But this is opinion. Where is the Bernie lie in the matter?

Here are actual lies, words coming out of Trump's mouth that are simply not true:

"The NSA and FBI tell Congress that Russia did not influence electoral process."

"it was the biggest Electoral College win since Ronald Reagan,”

"It is a disgrace that my full Cabinet is still not in place, the longest such delay in the history of our country."

"the murder rate in the USA is the highest it's been in 45 to 47 years."

You seem confused about what a "lie" is. It is "a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive". Believing that a system like "democratic socialism" (not to be cofnused with the Marx/Lenin versions) might work does not make one a liar, not if they believe it themselves. Are they wrong? Debatable, but not a lie.

So tell me - where and when did your fantasy of successful pure capitalism exist? Do you believe in the Easter Bunny? Perhaps you should take your next vacation to Hong Kong, or India, or China; you might learn something. So please tell me how you are different and can make capitalism work. I await your announcement.

And go ahead and give me some CNN, or NY Times, or Washington Post "lies" and let's compare those to Trumps.

I am also unsure what Rice or Obama have to do with anything. Bernie was the one you were supposed to be searching for lies from. I guess you came up empty.

I also don't know what anger, or what video, you are talking about. It seems you are frustrated with not being able to come up with your pie-in-the-sky capitalistic utopia, or with "lies" that fit your argument. It is easy to make shallow blanket statements, but not so easy to back them up, huh?

Of course you don't, because it was spoken in 2012, then taken out of context and repeated ad nauseum on FOX.

Hillary asked the witch hunt committee what difference did it make "at this point" if the consulate was attacked by a spontaneous mass of extremists or by a group of extremists who planned it. She added that four Americans were dead and that was the point.

Reasonable Americans understood the point she was making. Morons like poppycock and Tom think that Hillary conspired with the terrorists to attack the consulate and was covering up her complicity. It's their go to statement when they are getting their asses kicked with facts.